looking for best layers and fryers for our hard winters

Date sort Score sort
Glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC. That chart is very handy and informative.

Some key features of birds that are cold hardy are smaller combs and wattles, that won't get frostbitten; and good thick feathering. There are some breeds that have feathered legs, which is also good for cold weather. Larger bodied breeds also do better in cold weather. Some breeds have variable combs, so be sure you get ones with the sort of comb you want. Here is a nice intro to the variety of combs. You can see that the smaller the comb, the less flesh is exposed to icy frostbite sort of weather.

There are some breeds that do well in cold weather and hot, lay a lot of eggs, and are still good broiler/fryer birds. They are called "dual purpose" and examples are Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, Delaware, Plymouth Rocks (of any color), Buckeye, Australorp, Ameraucanas (Easter Eggers) and Orpingtons (of whatever color).

Pay attention not only to how many eggs they lay, but how soon they start laying and whether they will continue laying over winter, when the sunny hours become so scarce. Look at the rate of growth and how well they convert feed into flesh and eggs. You can't get all this info from Henderson's chart, so you may need to google some selected breeds to get the details to narrow down your list.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom